The Baby in the Mirror

Jackson loves the baby in the mirror. When he was just a few months old, he would stare at the baby in the mirror. When he learned how to smile, he would smile when we held him up the mirror. And then he learned to pat, and then to shout out to the baby in the mirror.

It’s been fascinating watching him learn about the mirror. The first time he seemed to demonstrate an understanding of what the mirror did was at Christmas, when he was 10 months old. We were in Atlanta visiting my in-laws. I was holding Jackson up to the mirror and his Grandmum was looking on. He saw her image in the mirror waving to him, then he turned around to look at her. I wondered then if he knew that was her reflection or if he thought there were two of her.

Jackson’s been growing more verbal lately. His vocabulary is mainly one-syllable words that get repeated. He knows I’m “mama” and Ian is “dada” and he knows if he wants milk he shouts out “nai nai” (the Cantonese version of milk, which is so much easier for an infant to say than "milk"). But two weeks ago, we heard him practicing some two-syllable words. He would crawl around the house saying something that sounded like "Dak-hhhhhn." The "hhhhhn" part was rather entertaining because it was basically blown through his nose. Then a few days later, it morphed into "Dak-tah." We weren't sure what he was trying to say, but we knew it was significant because it was his only two-syllable word and he kept repeating it. Then one night when I held him up to look at the baby in the mirror, he laughed and declared, "Dak-snnnnn" and I realized that he was saying the two-syllable word he hears the most often - "Jackson."

It amazes me that he can recognize that the baby that he sees in the mirror is him. And it amazes me that he knows his name. And even more that he is so motivated to say his name. We humans are truly fascinating creatures.

Clarice